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IMS-TOF
si@mass TOF
Ion Mobility Spectrometer – Time
of Flight Mass Spectrometer
The high resolution atmospheric drift tube IMS with a resolving power
of 100 - 120 is the first commercialised traditional IMS-TOF/MS instrument.
It provides a two-dimensional separation based on size and mass. In IMS-TOF/MS,
ions are separated on the size-to-charge ratio in the IMS part and the
mass-to-charge ratio in the TOF/MS region.
Traditional IMS technique exhibits the special feature that the gaseous
ions moving through a drift tube with a homogeneous, continuous electric
field in the presence of neutral gas molecules. The time it takes the
ions to travel down the drift tube ist directly proportional to the size
they have in shape. Thus, the cross section of the ions can be calculated
down to a few angstroms.
The IMS/MS technique expands into more and more applications in different
research areas and the application areas are still growing. It provides
solutions for instance in proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, whole-proteine
analysis, small-molecule investigations, tissue imaging, and polymer characterization.
Particularly the ability to isolate conformers and isomers by IMS/MS affects
a number of biological and pharmaceutical research areas.
The IMS-TOF/MS software provides the user a third dimension in sample
separation. The instrument comes standard with electrospray ionisation
(ESI) source for coupling to liquid chromatography (LC). Alternatively,
it can be provided with a corona discharge ion source for chemical ionisation
of gaseous samples, enabling use as a detector for gas chromatography
(GC). A collision induced dissociation (CID) is optional included after
the IMS for structural analysis of IMS separated ions.
IMS-TOF/MS instuments are deliverd with flexible, general-purpose software
bundle that controls IMS-TOF electronics, experiment timing, and data
collection. Aquisition and data storage are optimized for speed and multi-dimensional
experiments. The software is ideal for hyphenation of the instrument with
other separation methods.
- ESI or corona discharge ionization
- High resolution atmospheric IMS (R = 100-120)
- Fragmentation between IMS and TOF
- CID adjustable with pressure and voltage
- IMS/MS is like MS/MS with all parent ions simultaneously
- High mass resolution allows for:
- separation of isobars
- good mass accuracy
- Good mass accuracy allows for:
- unambiguous identification of peaks
- Software with 4 dimensional data acquisition allows for hyphenated
separation techniques like:
- Rugged, transportable, field deployable, modular
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The new Dimension: size
meets mass 
......... 
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API TOF sheme
Applications
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metabolomics
